Perhaps the most difficult challenge confronting the development of
women's wrestling in Canada is overcoming the antiquated attitudes of some
members of the established wrestling community. Some individuals greet
the opportunity to create a women's program with support and enthusiasm.
Others make snide remarks and question the appropriateness of the female
invasion into this predominantly male milieu. The success of any program
is always determinant upon the willingness and enthusiasm of those individuals
involved. Women's wrestling is here to stay in Canada. However, how quickly
and efficiently the program develops is yet to be seen. The Canadian wrestling
community needs to forego preconceived stereotypes and prejudices. We need
to be proactive in the development and support of this progressive movement.
Let's avoid manufacturing excuses for why we are not part of women's wrestling.
Let's invite women into our wrestling rooms and onto our wrestling teams
today.

-- Mike Payette, Canadian Wrestler, Winter 1991/Spring 1992

***

With those words Mike Payette, then technical director of the Canadian
Amateur Wrestling Association (CAWA), launched the women's wrestling program
in Canada. For once it was the national body leading the charge. Women's
wrestling was already taking hold in some of the most unlikely countries.
Japan, for example, had been sending women to the FILA (Fédération
Internationale de Lutte Amateur, or international) world championships
for females since the inaugural year of 1987.

The solution for the acceptance of female wrestling was simple -- have
girls wrestle girls. [EN1] It was so simple, in fact,
that no one had thought of it. There were legal battles looming in Saskatchewan,
for example, because the Saskatchewan Amateur Wrestling Association was
blocking the entry of females into the male competition. Once the female
categories were added, the problems went away overnight.

"If you host it, they will come." That was the strategy that CAWA implemented
to launch the program. After several successful exhibition events held
at British Columbia's Simon Fraser University proved the viability of women's
wrestling, CAWA then added a female division to the Canadian national championships
starting in 1992. It would be up to the provinces to take up the challenge.

In Ontario, people such as Bill Smith in St. Catharines, Ralph Sneyd
in Collingwood, and Frank Corning in Fergus welcomed the initiative. They
had had girls involved in wrestling on an informal basis since the early
1970s and they also had witnessed some of the problems that mixed competition
created. In the years that Harry Mancini was coaching at Bishop Ryan back
in the 1980s he took his daughter, Melissa, to practice at the high school
from about age five. And he entered her in meets competing against boys
in age-group tournaments where because of her advanced technical skills
and the fact that the male-female strength differential was not yet apparent,
she, more often than not, won the weight class. [EN2]
The problem was not when a girl lost, that was to be expected -- it was
when she won! The young boys on the receiving end had no way to cope with
a loss to the opposite sex, and teammates were less than sympathetic. In
some cases the boys simply quit the sport in humiliation.

The Ontario Amateur Wrestling Association (OAWA) was also in favor of
the CAWA initiative. Cognizant of the important role that Ontario Federation
of Secondary School Associations (OFSAA) played as the spawning ground
for their provincial teams, OAWA offered financial and administrative support
for a separate female OFSAA division, when and if approval could be had.
It was time to call the negotiator, Bill Smith. The male-led Sports Advisory
Committee for Wrestling was very supportive of a girls' section and agreed
that Bill should push ahead. He then approached the female-led Women's
Competition Committee of OFSAA. There he was met with skepticism on two
fronts. First, the idea of females grappling was culturally unacceptable
-- girls don't fight. Secondly, there was the knowledge that all the coaches
were male and some had less than impeccable reputations. It wasn't anything
morally incorrect; it was just that their coaching antics were well known.
Smith was low key, persuasive, and very patient. After about an hour and
a half of negotiations he had a reluctant go-ahead to stage a small demonstration
event at the 1993 championships. Girls' OFSAA wrestling had begun!

The first meet featured twelve girls in total. To ensure the host organizing
committee would not be out of pocket for the inclusion of the girls' participation,
the OAWA office provided the administration support, supplied the medals,
and paid for the additional officiating cost. Invitations were sent to
all district associations asking them to send up to two girls for the event.
If some spots went unused then they would be offered to other districts
that wanted to send a third girl. To ensure participation and to get the
momentum going, Smith took it upon himself to contact those coaches whom
he knew were currently coaching girls to advise them of the opportunity.
The wrestling uniform was modified slightly because female singlets were
not yet widely available. Most girls wore a boy's singlet over a T-shirt.
There were no weight divisions. Once the girls arrived they were paired
according to their actual weights and each girl wrestled two exhibition
matches. The techniques demonstrated were basic and the conditioning was
not always the best. However, there was enthusiasm and the girls were eager
to compete.

"If you host it, they will come." About this time coaches with girl
athletes on their school teams began looking for those few invitational
tournaments that included a separate division for females. And tournament
directors were learning that offering a female division added extra excitement,
as well as revenues to the coffers. The number of girl participants was
slowly increasing.

Acceptance that female wrestling was a good thing was also growing.
However, there were those who still objected. Nowhere in OFSAA was there
a female coach and at certain schools the male coaches refused to allow
girls on their teams. Some referees even boycotted the girls' matches.
But the seed was germinated and the traditional concept of wrestling as
a male-only bastion was eroding.

Jim Dempsey, one of the die-hard oldsters, became one of the converted:

At first I refused to go on the mat [as an official] with the girls.
I wouldn't do it. But I changed my mind and I changed it because of the
way the guys react to the girls. They respect them. There is no smart-ass
talk. They respect those girls and they see those girls as human beings,
not Barbie dolls or sex objects or decoration. And if we can accomplish
that, we have done something that society hasn't done because men still
beat up women. Men still see women as sex objects. But not here.
Feminism as a movement could not have had a better ally than girls' wrestling.

For the second OFSAA championship for girls held in 1994, the invitations
were sent out along with the boys. There was some question at that time
as to whether the girls required different or adapted rules. After some
serious consideration by the OFSAA Advisory Committee it was decided unnecessary.
Girls had been working out on the same practice mats as the boys for some
time now and were often sparring with them, so why complicate things by
implementing a different set of rules?

As was the case the year before, there were no predetermined weight
classes. To encourage the widest participation possible there were also
no restrictions on the number of girls who could enter. Smith was delighted
when 56 girls, representing nineteen different schools, registered. As
the makeshift divisions were created, Bill recorded the actual weights.
The data would be used to establish norms for the eventual creation of
weight classes. The girls were tenacious, technical proficiency was improving,
and most importantly, more and more coaches were realizing that girls'
wrestling was a viable sport. And it was here to stay.

Action from the 2000 Ontario championships

In 1995, at the third OFSAA exhibition, the numbers had grown to 134
entrants representing some seventy schools. Based on Smith's scientific
data, nine formal weight classes were introduced. That number would be
adjusted to ten and then twelve in the subsequent two years.

Nineteen ninety-seven was a significant year for the advancement of
girls' wrestling. The Women's Competition Committee, satisfied with the
four invitational events staged thus far, agreed to designate girls' wrestling
as a "festival," a term that indicates that a new sport is under consideration
for full championship status under the aegis of OFSAA. Girl's wrestling
was no longer just an exhibition, it was now a legitimate OFSAA event.
This official status not only added prestige, but it was a positive factor
when it came time for school administrators to approve the participation
of their students.

By 1998, the girls' division was so successful that the number of entries
broke 200. From a humble beginning of just twelve girls in total just five
years earlier, there were now, on average, sixteen girls per weight division.
And with the increased numbers of girls participating there was beginning
to be a need for qualification meets to determine who would fill the two
spots per weight class allocated to each district. As was the case with
the boys, soon it would be a privilege just to wrestle at OFSAA.

Qualification standards had raised the bar. Girls trained harder than
before, fitness levels were approaching or on par with the boys, and the
technical level of the girls had made a quantum leap. Not surprising when
one realizes that the girls were sparring as equals with the boys, and
of course they were getting the benefits of thirty-plus years of coaching
expertise. They were starting at a higher level than were the Ontario boys
back in 1961, and it was all to the good.

Girls' wrestling seems solidly entrenched and once the event becomes
a full championship event in 2001, it will have all the rights and privileges
of any other OFSAA sport. In the meantime, Bill Smith, as one of the guardians
of girls' wrestling, has gone to great lengths to ensure equality in all
aspects -- girls and boys wrestle on the same mats, with the same rules,
using the same referees, and their medals are presented in an identical
fashion. It is unlikely that the numbers of girls will ever reach those
enjoyed by the boys, but the tournament is certainly respectable, if not
spectacular, in its present scope.

There is one more step in the evolution that is needed to bring the
sport of female wrestling full circle, and that is female coaches. Eventually,
as the girls that wrestle go on to university and graduate, hopefully some
will find a way to put back into the sport through coaching. As volunteers,
as Canadian wrestling coaches are, there is only so much time to go around
and with more and more girls turning out for wrestling, the current set
of coaches is being pushed to the limits. Without reinforcements in the
coaching ranks, the current growth of female wrestling cannot be sustained.
But it is a good problem to have.

About the Author

Glynn A. Leyshon is a former captain of the University of Western Ontario
wrestling team, the former coach of Ontario's Winston Churchill collegiate
wrestling team, a former Canadian Olympic wrestling coach, and the author
of several books about Canadian wrestling and judo. This article is an
excerpt from his latest book, Mat Wars: The Story of Ontario High School
Wrestling. To order, contact Dr. Leyshon at Gley706030@aol.com.
Cost, including postage, is CDN $20 anywhere in North America; outside
North America, send US $20.

Editor's Notes

EN1. Since this is an article about high school student
athletics, the terms "girls" and "boys" were preferred by both the author
and the editor to the more politically correct but enormously precious
"juvenile [gender] persons."

EN2. Although individuals vary enormously, the statistical
average adult female possesses 72% of the leg strength and 60% of the lower
back strength per inch of height as her male counterpart.